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This is it, my first blog post. Where to start? I really don’t know. I’m a science & math guy, not a student of words and essays. So I guess I’ll start with the ‘why’.

Why you ask? To offer my wife support, that’s why. After over a decade of doing a prodigious job of raising kids (and me) and keeping a household she is re-entering the job force. Being a holistic nutritionist and ninja of all things wellness, apparently having an online presence and being a practitioner of all things ‘social’ is just as important as knowing what the fuck an Essential Fatty Acid is. So she asked me to help her with all things Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress, WUPHF and FaceTubeSpace. Belonging to none of these social outlets (my social outlets being booze, music & masturbating) I felt it best to actually sign up and drill in the fine arts of social media. So here I am, with my very own WordPress blog & Twitter tweet tweet. Think of my blog as a sandbox environment to her production environment.

What you ask? This one’s easy, booze & music (sorry…I refuse to blog about masturbating as there’s a good chance my kids will read this one day). Listening to records and having a drink is something I do almost every other night so it’s a very easy thing to write about. In particular it’ll be my perspective listening to vinyl records in my collection on my analog rig.

Where? Mostly in my basement where my set up is, but now and again at any one my bro’s house who also have an analog setup.

Who? Me. I’m located above by clicking the ‘About me’ link.

When? Who the fuck knows, but let’s say once a week for arguments sake.

How? Pretty sure I answered this in my previous responses.

Shit, so far this feels like filling out a RFP at work.

So on to the fun stuff. I guess it makes most sense to start with what I’ll be spinning on. So, let’s follow the signal path.

The Listening Room:

It’s a basement room, primarily below ground and rectangular in shape compromising of an uncomfortable couch, an Ikea unit full of records, some kids play toys, my HiFi rack, speakers, etc. The ceiling’s 7 feet, a 21 foot length, and a 14 foot width with the setup set up width wide. The floor is carpeted over concrete plus the “premium” under-pad. Everything is setup width wide with the speakers typically 2 feet from the wall and me listening from about 8 feet away.

The Cartridge:Dynavector 10X5. Dynavector’s entry level cart which debuted in 1978. Here’s what Dynavector has to say:

The Tone Arm:JA Michell Techno Arm, which is a highly modified Rega RB250 arm. Here’s what Michell Engineering has to say:

One-piece perforated arm casting with internal foam damping

Proprietary silver litz cable in a continuous run from cartridge to amplifier

PTFE dielectric, metal braided shielding, separate ground wire

Silver-plated cartridge clips and phono plugs

Two counterweights, matching cartridges of 4-7g and 7-13g

Vertical tracking force adjuster in steps of 0.1g

Vertical tracking angle adjuster

Finger locknut for easy arm removal or VTA adjustment

The Turntable:JA Michell Gyro SE, which is essentially a GyroDec without all that costly acrylic. Here’s what Michell Engineering has to say:

Spider chassis, suspended stable subchassis

Massive acrylic/vinyl platter of high inertia, with gold-plated brass weights

Inverted oil-pumping bearing

Custom arm boards available for most tonearms

High-quality standalone DC motor

Optional clamp

Optional HR supply

Optional Orbe-style platter and clamp

Optional dust cover

Finished in silver

Weight 10 kg

Dimensions 49 (w) x 37.5 (d) x 13.5 (h) cms

The Preamp: A Mcintosh MX110 (z). A 50 year old vintage tube amp that looks like it just left the showroom. Hard to find specs on this one, but it brings an aura of HiFi times past complete with its wooden housing and sweet vintage sound.

The Power Amp:McIntosh MC275 V. A legend in the tube HiFi world, this unit puts out an impressive 75 Watts of tube power per channel. Unlike the MX110, googling this model will return thousands of hits of information. Debuting in 1962, this is the “Mark V” version which was recently updated a few months ago. This thing is crazy powerful and an amazingly fun piece of hardware. Here’s what McIntosh has to say:

Speakers:Monitor Audio Silver RX6. Finished in Walnut, these are just as much furniture as loud speaker. They double as my part of my 5.1 theatre setup. I love them. Here’s what Monitor Audio has to say: